


Living

by Soulstoned



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Existential Crisis, Gen, Horror, Mentioned Adam (Voltron), Mentioned Keith (Voltron), One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 03:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17634905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulstoned/pseuds/Soulstoned
Summary: In the aftermath of the destruction of the cloning facility, a surviving clone must deal with the reality of what he is and find a reason to keep going even though he can never go home.





	Living

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a 100 words prompt that got out of control, so I cleaned it up and added some more detail to post it here.

Shiro wakes up choking on viscous purple fluid. He is surrounded by it. His clothes and hair are soaked in it. He opens his eyes and finds that he is in some sort of glass cylinder. Most of the fluid has drained out through a wide jagged crack at the bottom of the cylinder. He feels around for a latch but there is nothing. No way out from the inside.

The last thing he remembers is being dragged into the Witch’s lab. Two Galra strapped him to a table and said they had a gift for him, that they were going to make him stronger. On a tray table nearby he remembers seeing a mechanical arm and something that looked frighteningly like a saw blade. A tall lighter purple Galra that he had seen only a couple times before looked down on him with what could almost be described as pity before injecting something into his veins. He remembers trying to fight the sedation as the other Galra in the room shouted at the lighter one for ruining his fun.

Then he woke up here.

Shiro tries to get a look at his surroundings, but a large chunk of a broken metal wall is blocking his view. From what he can tell he is in some kind of wreckage. Perhaps the ship he was being held prisoner on had crashed while he was still under. It would explain the ache he feels through his entire body. He chances a look at his right arm and is surprised to see that it is still attached. He rolls up his sleeve to take a better look and not only is it still there, it is better than before. Without his bracelet, his right arm had begun to wither. Looking at it now it looks as good as new. Maybe the prosthetic he had seen was intended for someone else. Maybe his arm had been salvageable.

He kicks to break the glass near the crack at the bottom of his glass coffin and tries to ignore the pain as glass shards slice his foot and ankle. Once the hole in the glass is large enough he squeezes through and limps around to try to get a better idea of his surroundings.

There are hundreds of glass cylinders identical to his own. Many are intact and filled with the same purple fluid he coughed up when he first awoke, and many more are laying shattered and bloody. The body parts sticking out through many of them look frighteningly human and he has to look away.

Shiro walks to the nearest intact cylinder and peers through the glass. Inside he can see himself. He looks almost peaceful, like he is sleeping.

Shiro reels back in shock and searches the other nearby cylinders. They all hold the same thing: Himself. Stronger than ever and missing his scar. Clones.

He searches the wreckage for something reflective. Something to help him see the scar on his face that would separate him from the others. Hoping to find any reassurance that he is the real Shiro and they are the copies. 

He finds a shiny piece of metal sticking out of the chest of a dead clone. He tries not to look too hard at the body as he pulls the shard free and wipes the blood off with his hand. Looking into his reflection an unscarred face looks back at him.

Shiro sinks to the ground next to the body. So this is it then. He is a clone in a deserted and destroyed facility. What can he even do from here? He can't go home. Even if he had a ship, he isn't really Shiro. 

He slowly stands up. He needs to find resources if he wants to survive this. So what if he can never return to earth? There are other planets out there. 

“Other planets don't have Keith, isn't that what you were fighting for? You promised him you would come home safe” a traitorous voice whispers inside his head. 

The real Shiro is almost certainly not safe if the recent memories that have been programmed into his head are anything to go by. He has already survived much longer in the arena than most prisoners could ever dream of, and without his bracelets he is on borrowed time. 

If he can get off this planet and somehow find the real Shiro and get him home to Keith, maybe surviving this will be worth it. 

He limps around the wreckage, trying not to look at the twisted broken bodies that surround him and thinking about how easily he could have been one of them. When Adam told him he was going to die in space during one of their last fights, he doesn't think this is what he had in mind.

He spots a small white pod across the rocky expanse and runs toward it, afraid it will take off if he waits too long. Out of the corner of his eye he spots a cylinder with a small crack halfway down, the fluid that he suspects is keeping the others alive is slowly oozing out. 

He tries to push it out of his mind and continues running. Each step leaving bloody footprints in a trail behind him. He reaches the pod and breathes a sigh of relief. Not only is it unoccupied, the fuel tank is nearly full. As he searches through the small cargo hold he finds a bag filled with emergency rations and first aid supplies. 

He sits in the pilot’s chair and pulls up the star map to see if anything will jog his memory to help him get back to the ship where the original Shiro is being held and is baffled to see that the majority of the labels are in English. That is another thing to push aside to think about later. 

He starts the engine, but before he can take off he hesitates. He looks over to the copilot’s chair and thinks back to the doomed clone in the cracked cylinder. He knows if he were in that clone’s position he would want someone to break him out and give him a chance. In a way that clone is him, at least in that the two of them are someone else.

With a sigh he shuts off the engine and limps back to the cracked cylinder. By the time he returns, the fluid in the cylinder has drained to his fellow clone’s shoulders and the other clone is now awake and looking around with his eyes wide in fear and surprise. Shiro grabs a nearby rock and gets to work breaking the reinforced glass open. Once the glass has broken enough for the clone to slip through without getting cut he extends a hand. “I found us a ship. Let's go save Shiro.”


End file.
